Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations
subcommittee is charged with providing annual appropriations for the Department of
Transportation (DOT), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and
related agencies. The HUD budget generally accounts for the largest share
of discretionary appropriations provided by the subcommittee. However,
when mandatory funding is taken into account, DOT’s budget is larger than
HUD’s budget, because it includes funding from transportation trust funds.
Mandatory funding typically accounts for a little less than half of the bill
total.

The President’s FY2013 budget requested $73.4 billion in new budget resources
for DOT. The requested funding was $3.5 billion (5%) more than the amount
provided for FY2012 (not counting $1.7 billion in FY2012 emergency
funding). Both the House-passed bill and Senate Committee on
Appropriations’ bill have recommended roughly the same level of funding as in FY2012
(not counting the emergency funding). The House-passed FY2013 THUD bill (H.R. 5972)
would provide no funding for the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery
(TIGER) grant program or for the high speed and intercity passenger rail
development program, two priorities of the Administration. The pending
Senate THUD bill (S. 2322) would fund the TIGER program and provide a
minimal level of funding for high speed rail development ($100 million,
compared to $1.0 billion requested). The Administration request proposed a restructuring
of DOT surface transportation programs reflecting a reauthorization proposal (a similar
proposal was included in last year’s request). The Appropriations Committees
did not support the requested restructuring; in July 2012 Congress passed
surface transportation reauthorization legislation which differed from the
Administration proposal.

The President’s FY2013 budget requested nearly $34 billion in net new budget
authority for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in
FY2013. This is about $4 billion less than was provided in FY2012.
However, in terms of new appropriations for HUD’s programs and activities,
the President’s budget actually requested an increase of more than $512 million compared
to FY2012. The difference—a decrease in net budget authority vs. an increase in
new appropriations—is attributable to an estimated increase in the amount
of excess receipts available from the FHA insurance fund, which are used
to offset the cost of the HUD budget. S. 2322 included about $35 billion
in net new budget authority for HUD. That is about $1 billion more than
the President’s request and over $2 billion less than was provided in FY2012.
H.R. 5972 included $33.6 billion for HUD, which is less than the Senate
proposed but more than the President requested.

The Administration has threatened to veto the House bill. In part this threat
came because of the House’s overall discretionary funding level for
FY2013, which is below the ceiling allowed for FY2013 in the Budget Control
Act of 2011. Another stated reason for the threat is opposition to certain
program funding levels in the bill, such as zeroing out the DOT TIGER and high
speed rail programs and the HUD Choice Neighborhoods and Sustainable
Communities programs, as well as cuts to HUD homeless assistance grants
and other programs. Congress has passed a continuing resolution (H.J.Res.
117) providing funding for federal agencies at roughly the FY2012 level
for the first six months of FY2013.

Date of Report: September 27, 2012
Number of Pages: 27Order Number: R42578Price: $29.95

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